I believe in love, too, and I believe in love at first sight. But that magic can fool me, so I when I interviewed Ann, I asked her how can we know for sure? I was prompted to ask, because of her latest true crime book – In the Still of the Night. In that book, former female state trooper Ronda Reynolds is found dead by her husband of eleven months. She picked the wrong man. Ronda had just learned that he had gone back to his ex-wife, a drug addict, who swiftly moved back in to take Ronda’s place. Ronda was only 32-years old. Her husband called 911, reporting a suicide. The gun was in her non-dominant hand, the trajectory of the bullet, impossible.
Ann Rule says she usually writes books that celebrate the hard-working law enforcement officials, but this time, she had to reveal how they bungled the case, destroying evidence, and ignoring valuable facts that led to anything but suicide.
Ann says women – even the most intelligent – can fall for the wrong guy. How do we know for sure he’s okay? Ann has a bunch of indicators, but the one I remember the most, is if you can’t trust your gut, trust your dog. Her dog’s shackles would rise up every time Ted Bundy came around.
I’ve only had that Yes feeling a few times in my life. Once, about a decade ago, I met Ann for an interview in a frigid bookstore in SW Washington and confided that a-love-at-first-sight-guy didn’t seem quite right. She told me he sounds like a sociopath. Ann would know. She’s been writing about sociopaths for years. Ann said get out. I did.
Ann Rule has saved many a life by writing her true crime books. She gets the emails from grateful women who tell her so. I’m one.